• Author / Uploaded
• Gabriela Montufar

• Categories
• Puma
• Aurora
• Ligero
• Organismos
• Naturaleza

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EXERCISE 1: Practice Skimming for General Information Skim the passage in 30 seconds. DO NOT spend more than this amount of time on your first reading of the passage. Then, read each question, and circle the correct answer. (Questions 1-3) Sometimes called puma, panther, or mountain lion, the agile cougar has a greater natural range than any other mammal in the Western Hemisphere except humans. However, long viewed as a threat to livestock, it has been intensively hunted since the arrival of European colonists to the Americas and was almost extinct by the early twentieth century. While protective measures have been implemented in the United States, humans continue to destroy the cougar`s habitat, further endangering this solitary cat.

EXERCISE 2: Practice Scanning for Details Allow yourself ONE minute to do this exercise. Read the questions below about the passage in Exercise 1. Then, using the related words in bold print below, QUICKLY scan the passage to find the answer to each question, Circle the correct answer. (Questions 4-6)

EXERCISE 3: More Practice Skimming Skim this passage in 45 seconds. DO NOT spend more than this amount of time on your first reading of the passage. Then, read each question, and circle the correct answer. In marine habitats, a number of small creatures are involve in a “cleaning symbiosis”. At least six species of small shrimp, frequently brightly colored, crawl over fish, picking off parasites and cleaning injured areas. This is not an accidental occurrence, because fish are observed to congregate around these shrimp and stay motionless while being inspected. Several species of small fish (wrasses) are also cleaners, nearly all of them having appropriate adaptions such as long snouts, tweezer-like teeth, and bright coloration. Conspicuous coloration probably communicates that these animals are not prey. (Questions 7-9)

EXERCISE 4: More Practice Scanning Allow yourself two minutes to do this exercise. Read the questions below about the passage in Exercise 1C. Then, using the related words in bold print below, scan the passage to answer each questions. Circle the answer when you find it in the passage. (Questions 10,11)

EXERCISE 5: More Practice Scanning Skim this passage in 60n seconds. Do not spend more than this amount of time on the first reading of the passage. Then read each question, and circle the correct answer. The northern lights, or the aurora borealis, is one of nature`s most dazzling spectacles. When it appears, there is often a crackling sound coming from the sky. A huge, luminous arc lights up the night, and this arc is constantly in motion. Sometimes, the brilliant rays of light spread upward in the shape of a fan. At other times, they flash here and there like giant searchlights, or move up and down so suddenly that they have been called “the merry dancers.” Farther north the aurora frequently looks like fiery draperies which hang from the sky and sway to and fro while flames of red, orange, green, and blue play up and down the moving folds. According to scientific measurements, this discharge of light takes place from 50 to 100 miles above the earth. But it doesn ́t reach its greatest brilliance at the North Pole. It is seen at its best around the Hudson Bay

region in Canada, in northern Scotland, and in southern Norway and Sweden. It may sometimes be seen even in the United States as it flashes across the northern sky. Science is still not certain regarding exactly what these light are and what causes them. But it is believed that the rays are due to discharges of electricity in the rare upper atmosphere. The displays seem to center about the earth ́s magnetic poles, and electrical and magnetic disturbances often occur when the lights are especially brilliant. (Questions 12-16)